Kuroda Gets Rocked, Yanks Fall To Jays 7-2

A night after blowing out the Toronto Blue Jays 7-1, the Yankees sent Hiroki Kuroda to mound looking to capture a series victory without Robinson Cano, who is day to day with a bruise left hand.

Kuroda continued his string of poor outings on the mound, giving up a season-high seven runs on nine hits, losing to the Blue Jays 7-2 Wednesday night at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada.

"It feels like, against the hitters, they're getting good timing off me," Kuroda said through his interpreter. "And it feels like that's happening quite a lot."

Of his last three shaky outings, this was probably the worst of the trio, as Kuroda just didn't have any edge on the Jays hitter, getting hit hard on seeming every swing. He just wasn't overpower hitters like we're use to seeing him.

All of the damage against Kuroda came in the first three innings of the game, with four of the seven runs coming in the first inning. A night after the Yankees put up four-runs on the first off J.A. Happ, the Jays didn't hesitate to do the same to Kuroda, putting the first two runs up on a two-run double by the hot-hitting Brett Lawrie, then two more on a dropped-third-strike to JP Arencibia, leading to a throwing error to first base.

"I called a slider, but he threw a fastball," Stewart said. "I expected it to break down and away, but it kept straight and hit off my glove. I tried to force the issue after that. I probably should have just eaten the ball and gone on to the next hitter. Unfortunately, I hit [Arencibia] in the back, and two runs come around to score."

An inning later, in the second, Edwin Encarnacion jacked a long two-run homerun to deep left field off Kuroda, extending the Blue Jays' lead to 6-0. Jose Reyes added the extra-point in the 3rd to give the Jays a 7-0 lead.

Kuroda's night was finished after the 5th inning, having tossed 99 pitches, while walking one and striking out four. His poor performance is something to be worried about, but I can expect him fixing it fairly quickly.

"It could be mechanics," Stewart said. "It could be that it's late in the year, his body could be getting tired, he's not able to physically repeat what he was doing early on in the year. He could be getting more conscious of it now. We can go to the tape, take a look at what he was doing, and hopefully correct it before his next outing."

The Yankees didn't go down quietly on the night, putting up a pair of runs in the top of the 4th on an RBI single to left field by Alex Rodriguez, then a RBI double by Mark Reynolds -- starting at second base in place of Eduardo Nunez, who was scratched before the game because of his right knee.

If there's any bright side to look at from the pitching side of things, Joba Chamberlain entered the game in the bottom of the 6th and tossed two scoreless innings without allowing a hit in one of his best relief appearances of the season.

Next up for the Yankees, an off-day on Thursday, then it's back to the grind on Friday when they open up a three-game, must win series in the Bronx against the Baltimore Orioles.

"We need to win games, and we need to win series," Girardi said. "We need to have a really good homestand. We've got 29 games left, and we're home for 10 games. We're playing some teams in our division. We need to have a really good homestand."

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